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Paul Thorn survived being in the ring with boxer Roberto “Hands of Steel” Duran. As impressive as that is, he also endured a poor Tupelo, Mississippi upbringing as the son of a Church of God Pentecostal minister without becoming bitter or mean. Thorn’s no Pollyanna. He understands that life can be rough. He professes to still be friends with his daddy, not to mention his uncle—a former pimp. Thorn could whoop your ass and sing about it, but mostly he’d rather make your life better. I can personally testify to that. A few years ago, I was in a dark place. I was feeling depressed and mean, drinking my shots and beers hard when Thorn hit the stage. By the third song, I had got my butt off the stool and was dancing along with the rest of the crowd with a smile on my face. This was the song that did it. If you are feeling low, I hope it lifts your spirits as it did mine.

San Francisco-based producer Al Lover has honored the late great Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) with Safe as Milk Replica, a “distorted reworking” of the art-rock sage’s 1967 debut album Safe as Milk. On the project, Al Lover’s deconstructs Beefheart’s cacophonic blues with a MPC sampler to concoct, as he puts it, “fuzzed out psychedelic boom-bap shit”.

A mere three weeks after announcing a show at Radio City Music Hall, Explosions in the Sky have released details about their forthcoming record, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. The album’s tracklist is available on the band’s website, and their new teaser video is embedded below.

As an unabashed EITS fan, I can’t help but find the album’s title a little troublesome. Is this a farewell record? I suppose only time will tell. In the meantime, we can all marvel at Munaf Rayani’s nasty jumpshot and ponder weather or not he’s gunning for Dirk Nowitzki’s job.

Last Wednesday night, Steven Ellison (aka Flying Lotus) and his Brain Feeder label mates took over DJ Benji B’s BBC Radio 1 show. During the two hour program, which was recorded at Flying Lotus’s home in Los Angeles, the experimental beat maker performed a DJ mix and a live set, and he was joined by Gaslamp Killer, Matthew David, Tokimonsta, Teebs and Samiyam. Here’s a SoundCloud stream of the show (via the music blog Some of Awesome), or you can check it out over at Radio 1’s website.

In other Flying Lotus news, this past Sunday he won album of the year for his Cosmogramma LP at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards 2011. Thom Yorke presented the award to Ellison, and after the show the artist talked with Yorke and Peterson. You can watch the tongue-in-cheek interview in the clip below.

And speaking of Thom York, the Radiohead fan site At Ease says Peterson was discussing the ceremony on his radio show the other day and he stated this wonderful nugget: “there’s a new Radiohead album if you’re wondering. Just done I believe.”